been out on several service calls lately where breakers are tripping because geicos (lizards) are creeping into panels. have any of you guys had similar situations. what is it that they are attracted , is it the heat??

Worked in the Bahamas and would see geico skeletons often when the panel cover is taken off. Sometimes the little buggers would scare the heck out of you when they start trying to get away. Rumour has it the last one that I let out finally made it to his audition for an insurance company spokesman.

GEICO = Government Employee's Insurance Company http://www.geico.com

Gecko = Little lizard thing that keeps getting confused with GEICO...





(However, after dealing with GEICO to insure my truck, I wouldn't mind seeing a few GEICO skeletons myself!)

[This message has been edited by sparky66wv (edited 08-15-2002).]

No gecko's, but did find two chicken snake skins in Petersburg two weeks ago, one still still had a chicken snake in it. They don't even slow down a Dewalt demolition sawzall blade. They stink though.

Gee, I don't know whether I should let my cat see that cartoon! My house backs on to sand dunes behind the beach, and despite the generally colder climate here, come summer there are quite a few of these lizards around.

I haven't found any in panels, but I've often chasing them around the house as my cat loves to play with them!

thanks for correcting my spelling sparky66wv sounds like u are a very smart man or lady...

Had an unpleasant experience a few days ago involving things unelectrical in panels. I was shutting off power at a barn fire - I turned off the disco (an ancient 100a. SqD safety switch), and, as is my usual custom, opened the cover to be sure that all the hot legs had operated (I'm sure many of you have seen switches in such decrepit condition that the contact arm insulators have rotted away). The bottom of the switch box was occupied by a large rattlesnake, who was not at all pleased with the intrusion. Fearing snakes as much as I do (even while wearing a heavy turnout coat and gloves), I slammed the box shut and ran. After a few moments, I returned and found the head of the snake on the ground. Opening the box revealed the remainder of said snake, writhing about.

My volunteer fire department doesn't pay me enough for this . I think I'll give up this part of firefighting and go back to being a chauffer/engineer.

Mike (mamills)

Mike, have you figured out how the snake got in the switch yet?

Ed

Smokey,
"Smart aleck" is more like it (and I had to use spell check myself to see if I spelled "aleck" right! I had one too many L's too! Copied and pasted into MSWorks to do it...)

Didn't mean any harm, just thought it was funny that the lil' guy does get confused with GEICO!

(Oh, and I'm a guy...)

Paul, (and other internat'l members) in case you've never seen a GEICO commercial, the gecko above has a terrible problem of getting confused with GEICO and receiving phone calls at all hours from said confusion... And he's recently been named "Employee of the year" after getting hired on to do commercial spots!

Ah, marketing...



[This message has been edited by sparky66wv (edited 08-19-2002).]

Ed:
The box had one large open KO in the side (probably 1 1/4"). At the time of this incident, there was also some debris up against the building - various old pieces of lumber, a couple of tires, old vines attached to the side of the barn, etc.
There were also two large KO's open in the back of the box - one contained wiring (obviously to a panel somewhere inside the barn), and the other opened to an unused hole in the wall behind the box. That old barn was probably a breeding ground for those darn poison ropes. Luckily we did not have any injuries/bites.

Mike (mamills)

WE only have one poisonous snake in England -- the adder -- and you don't see a lot of them around. Harmless grass snakes are more plentiful, and I remember hearing of a telephone exchange some years ago where these slippery customers had made their way into the distribution racks from the cable bays below. Can't remember where it was exactly.

By the way, is that gecko above friends with the Budweiser frogs?

Not sure about the Bud frogs ;-)

I recall hearing from a telco employee that a few of his jobs for "static on the line" were the result of a cockroach finding its way into a telephone jack or protector (the older indoor equipment...)

I have seen a nest of mice that all got zapped behind a meter socket. Also seen where squirels chewed up power lines and blew themselves up.

Caper

Oh yes! Cockroaches aren't that common here, but I've seen plenty of outdoor junction boxes full of spiders, woodlice, and other assorted bugs.

I wonder why all these beasties always seem to gravitate toward electrical equipment - breaker panels, switches, J-boxes, meters, telephone equipment and on and on and on...?

The only thing I can figger out is that they must like the heat, although I would think that my snake-in-the-switch would have been barbequed sitting out there in our hot Texas sun.

Mike (mamills)

The creepy-crawlies really seem attracted to electrical gear. Not sure if it is the warmth, the EM fields, or what. I once worked at a TV shop where we occasionally had to use a leaf blower to blow the roaches out of a customer's TV or VCR before we brought it into the shop. We tried to repair those right on the sidewalk outside, if at all possible.

Apparently the term "bug" for a computer glitch has a real live bug behind it. A moth that got trapped between a set of relay contacts in an early computer was the "Mother of all Computer Bugs":
http://www.jamesshuggins.com/h/tek1/first_computer_bug.htm

popped open an ancient 8" x 12" wire trough in a feed mill once, and a perfectly preserved possum skeleton was laying in there, with his teeth still imbedded in the insulation of a 250 MCM. he must have been very hungry!...

ron

Hi Ron; I'll ask you the same question posed to me by Ed; How do you reckon ol' possum managed to get into the wire trough?

Mike (mamills)

[This message has been edited by mamills (edited 08-26-2002).]

mamills, damn good question!.. ...maybe he was born there and raised on the fine nutritional qualities of insulation?

actually, since the building had block walls, and there were open spaces between some sections of the trough, where they had knocked holes through the block. for the wires to go through, (gotta love those sledge hammer guys), there were several places he might have gotten into the trough. along with rats, pigeons, etc.... this place was an old feed mill.
ron

[This message has been edited by gramps (edited 08-27-2002).]